First came the betrothal. Fabricius and Damaris kept to ancient customs as far as might be, Damaris leaning to the rites of her Greek forefathers, and both of them to the customs of those early Greek Christians of Rome, to whom the Greek inscriptions of more than two centuries in the catacombs bore witness. The ceremonies of the veiling and the ring were therefore celebrated at the betrothal, which took place in the Oratory of the Ecclesia Domestica on the Aventine. There also were given the dowry by the fathers of the brides, the Irish chieftain and Fabricius, with the “_Arrhae_,” or pledge in money; there also the hands of the betrothed were joined, the sacred kiss given, and the ring placed on the hand of the bride, a signet ring, in token that she should henceforth seal and have charge of her husband’s property; and there, finally, they received the solemn benediction of the priest. Afterwards the betrothed separated, Lucia returning to her father’s house, and Ethne going with Baithene to a country house belonging to Fabricius, among the Sabine hills, high amidst the wooded mountains above the town of Subiaco. This separation was considered as especially important in their case, in order to efface all traces of captivity and bondage; that the marriage might be recognized as between those who always had been and were for ever free men and free women. For so deep and enduring was the degradation stamped legally and socially on the slave, that there had been a prolonged contest, scarcely yet decided, whether marriage between slaves was to be treated as legal marriage at all; whilst marriage between a free woman and a slave was regarded as in a sense a crime; and marriage between a free man and a slave woman was liable to be annulled at any moment. It was therefore arranged that the forty days between the betrothal and the marriage festival, customarily spent together by the betrothed apart from each other, should be spent together by the brother and sister in the villa on the Sabine hills. To Ethne, and indeed to both of them, those days were like a fresh baptism into childhood. The long year of humiliation and terrible suspense was over; to their unspeakable joy their father had become a Christian; and their parents in Ireland were content. Bright visions of re-union with his people were before Baithene; and before Ethne hope of a life of noble service with him to whom her heart was given. But she was to devote these weeks to the dear companion of all her past life, in an island of rest between the past and the future, in the midst of the voyage of life.